Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft

Apple sued OpenAI in federal court Friday, accusing the ChatGPT maker and two former Apple employees of stealing confidential hardware information to help OpenAI develop consumer devices for artificial intelligence.

The civil complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, names OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, also identified in the filing as Tang Yew Tan, and Chang Liu, a technical staffer and former Apple electrical engineer. Apple also named the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products as defendants, Al Jazeera reported. OpenAI, Liu and Tan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI,” Apple said in the complaint. “Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it.”

Apple alleges the defendants took proprietary information including product designs, manufacturing processes and supply chain strategies as OpenAI pushed to build hardware for ChatGPT. The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of engaging in a “coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level” and says the company pursued “an aggressive campaign to bring hardware devices to the market.”

An Apple spokesperson said Friday that the company will “always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so.”

Tan worked at Apple for more than two decades and helped design the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPod, according to the lawsuit. Liu worked at Apple for eight years and, the company alleges, had access to some of its most sensitive product development information.

The complaint alleges Liu failed to return a company-issued laptop and later used an authentication bug to access Apple’s internal network, downloading “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files.” Apple also claims Tan emailed himself information about Apple suppliers and internal industry summaries before leaving the company, and had been “methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI.”

Apple further alleges that Tan encouraged Apple employees to bring parts from Apple to OpenAI job interviews for “show and tell” sessions. In one incident described in the filing, an OpenAI job candidate allegedly said he “didn’t even know we could take those from the office.”

More than 400 former Apple employees now work for OpenAI, Apple said in the filing. “That OpenAI now employs people who were once entrusted with Apple’s trade secrets does not entitle OpenAI to use that information to jumpstart its hardware efforts,” the complaint states.

Apple also claims OpenAI employees sought confidential information from Apple suppliers. In one instance, Apple alleges, a supplier used a secret metal finishing technique for OpenAI because it believed the AI company had Apple’s permission to use it.

OpenAI has not disclosed the specific products it is developing, but has said it is researching new ways for people to interact with AI beyond “traditional products and interfaces.” Al Jazeera reported that OpenAI bought hardware startup io Products, founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, last year in a $6.5 billion deal as part of its move beyond software. Ive is not named in the lawsuit.

The suit comes as the relationship between Apple and OpenAI has been under strain, despite a partnership announced in 2024 that brought ChatGPT to Apple devices through Siri and allowed iPhone users to sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly from the iOS settings menu. Apple rolled out a long-delayed Siri overhaul last month, Al Jazeera reported.

Apple says it wrote to OpenAI in February to raise concerns that confidential information was reaching the AI company and asked to discuss the matter, but received no reply. Reuters reported in May, citing a person familiar with the matter, that OpenAI was exploring legal options against Apple, including notifying the company of a breach of contract but potentially not filing a lawsuit.

OpenAI’s hardware business “now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” Apple said in the complaint.